


love is a fucking mess

by kickassfu



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: Comedy, Daniel Lives, F/M, Horror, Profanity, like the explosions, maybe the beginnings of something that could be, more introspective than anything, not super graphic but graphic enough i suppose, not very romantic, second chapter is short and sweet, their lives after it happened, usual violence as the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22310551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kickassfu/pseuds/kickassfu
Summary: What if Alex had betrayed her sooner and Daniel had survived?
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 37
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i have very strong feelings about this movie and how Daniel should have survived, also I ship Daniel and Grace far too much. So I couldn't help myself, I'm sorry. There's just not enough fic of them out there. 
> 
> Also havent been feeling great mentally, and I just needed to post this. If it sucks...well my bad. 
> 
> And if you want one more chapter to see how shit went between them after, I'd be happy to do it.

_Love is such a messy, intangible feeling._ Grace was sure she loved Alex, more than sure really, she knew Alex to be the one she loved more than anything. A chance at a new life, _a family_ , pure and wholesome _love_. But how can you truly love someone if you don’t know their deepest parts, the secrets beneath the loving façade? Can that even be called true love?

Alex brought her here, to be slaughtered like a pig. On a chance, yes, that maybe the card wouldn’t be drawn, and she’d be blissfully married to him, unaware of the dark truths of his family. Bad luck. Shitty luck, even. But if the chance was there, no matter how minuscule, how could he do it to her? Was that love? Could that even be called love?

As she ran for her life, as she clung and scratched and fought for her survival, Grace surprisingly had no time to actually think about that philosophical question. Betrayal rung in her brain, but so did love, and Grace had no time to think about her feelings, only what came next.

Still, a subconscious thought kept nagging at her, who was Alex Le Domas? Not having the whole puzzle of the man she was supposed to be in love with, her _husband_ , ate away at her mind and heart. Perhaps Grace had fallen in love with the façade and not the man. Maybe her love was true, but Alex was not.

When his final betrayal came, her heart broke once again, and somehow she couldn’t be completely surprised. Not when he had brought her there. Not when he looked at her like _that_. As the final pieces of the puzzle came together, she could finally understand who Alex Le Domas was. And could she ever love a monster like that? She couldn’t, she didn’t. Only now was she truly meeting him after all, and Grace absolutely hated the fucker.

* * *

Daniel Le Domas was odd. As in, he was 100% one of those rich douchebags you can’t help but dislike, and still, somehow, his pretend charm (buried under copious amounts of alcohol), ended up being quite endearing. He flirted with his brother’s bride to be, which was obviously a big no-no (she thought it was kind of funny though), and he drank a lot, but of his whole family he seemed like the only one to genuinely like Grace, so when he told her she didn’t belong in their family she was hurt.

_But holy fuck, he was right, and Daniel was the only one trying to warn her about that fucked up family._

_He could’ve tried harder though._

Still, over and over again, he tried to help her. Again, could’ve done a better job of it, but going against years and years of fucked up family teachings couldn’t be easy...right? At least he tried.

 _Love is such a messy, intangible word._ She hardly knew Daniel, was still in the midst of coming to terms of loving and not loving Alex, and still….

And still, Daniel was there, half poisoning his own family, helping her escape even if that meant all of their deaths. Being decent and kind and warm, and that meant a lot. Especially right then and there, together in Hell.

When Charity showed up (right, he was totally married to some dickhole of a woman), gun pointed towards them and Daniel shielded Grace, her heart fell and she almost went down with it. She didn’t though, at least not in the way you’d expect, she tackled Daniel to the ground, the bullet barely grazing him, and then ran towards Charity before she could react and knocked her out.

“My hero.” Daniel joked, but his eyes shone with awe. Grace helped him up, smiling, “Yeah, couldn’t have you dying just yet.”

“Not until you’re out of danger, huh.”

“No, seriously. I need you. So don’t go dying on me, please.” she pleaded, begged, for him to stay, to live. He held the last strand of her sanity, he was her safe haven, the only one on her side.

“Wouldn’t think of it.” and he hadn’t lied to her, not yet, not ever. Daniel would stay for as long as she’d need him. Or die trying.

Before he could take her hand and run, run far far away, from everything and everyone that could ever hurt her, something hit his head and the world went dark. The last thing Daniel saw was Grace’s fear and disgust, but he dreamt of her smile. Of her warm hands, and soft lips, and then everything was red, blood and guts everywhere.

He woke as he heard the most gut-wrenching, animalistic scream - _Grace_ \- scrambling to get up he almost fell again, the dizziness he felt was sickening. But he needed to get to her, for her to be alive and safe. Fuck his family, they all deserved to rot in hell, him included. And Alex...maybe one day he’d come to terms with it.

When he entered the room, Grace was holding a knife and no one would come near her. Well, Daniel was a shitty prince charming, a little too late to do anything, but she never needed him. The only thought running through his head was “that’s my girl.”

Grace saw him, and instantly felt safer. She wouldn’t drop the knife though, not until all of them were dead on the ground or she was completely safe. The sun had risen, and they all acted like headless chickens, afraid of the Devil, as if anything would even happen.

“That girl still dies.” Helena, the crazy aunt yelled, and as Daniel thought about running to stop her (he’d never get there in time), she exploded.

Daniel looked on in shock for a second and then whistled, “I’ll be damned. It’s real. Huh.”

“You fucking idi-” his dad looked disappointed for the last time as he also blew up.

Charity begged not to be taken, and if she hadn’t tried to kill him he might have felt guilty for bringing her into the family, even though she knew what she was signing up for. But nope, good riddance.

As he saw his family die, he felt nothing. He should have felt conflicted, heartbroken, sad. But no. Maybe tomorrow, when the shock had settled- oh right, he was also going to die. Maybe in his next life.

Finally focusing in on what was happening once again, he saw Alex pathetically plead with Grace. All the while that eerie hide and seek song played, all the while the house burned.

Daniel loved his brother, and maybe Alex turned out like this because he didn’t do enough to protect him. Seeing blow up would probably fuck him up, but that grovelling was disgusting, “Alex, I love you, but honestly, do you really think you deserve her forgiveness? You tried to kill her.”

“Daniel, shut the fuck up.”

“Alex.” Grace sighed, tired of it all.

“Yeah?”

“I want a divorce.” she said, throwing her ring at him.

Daniel, for the first time, felt like puking his guts out. If he wasn’t about to die, he’d need years of therapy after that. Both him and Grace were covered in Alex’s blood and everything else really.

“Ok, so, this was fun. Seeing all of my family die and all, it’s great that I got the worst of it. But like why is nothing happening? Why am I still here?”

Grace managed to look surprised, even though she had no strength to emote much of anything. The trauma of everything was certain to be a fun ride for the next decades to come.

“Maybe you’re not going to die. You basically rejected them as your family; seeing as you chose me instead of them.”

“Yeah right. _As if._ I deserve to die as much as they do.”

Grabbing Daniel’s hand, she looked into his eyes and asked sincerely, “Do you?”

Before he could say anything else - he didn’t even know what to even say - Le Bail showed up on the chair, nodded to them and disappeared.

“Fuck.” they both said in astonishment.

“So, I’m alive, huh. Weird.”

“Yup, we’re a family of two now.”

“Are you proposing to me? Because I just became a widower, if you didn’t know.”

Snorting, Grace pulled him outside and they sat on the stairs as the house burned down and the sirens blared, “I think I’m done with marriage.”

“That’s fine, we can just live together.” he winked at her, hoping to get a reaction out of her. And he did, it was small, almost unnoticeable, but there was a smile on her face. As she smoked one of his mom’s cigarettes - he would need so much fucking therapy - Daniel looked at her and knew he loved her. Not that he could ever deserve her, but oh well.

“I wish I had a drink.” he said instead.

In response, Grace gave him a cigarette instead. A vice for a vice, he supposed. They stared at nothing, as the police and firefighters approached them. The cop was saying something, but neither of them were really listening, or taking in anything he said. The shock was probably setting in.

“Jesus Christ, what happened to you?”

That, they managed to somehow hear, and they answered at the same time.

“In-laws.” Grace said, unemotional, and Daniel laughed, “Crazy family.”


	2. but sometimes it's worth it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And maybe they had kissed once. When the nightmares had proven to be a bit too real, and they couldn’t breathe, or feel. So they chased each other’s warmth, over and over again. Needing to feel the heat, to hear the other’s heartbeats, to grab and hold and squeeze. It was gentle and loving, but also rushed and bruising. To imprint themselves into the other’s skin. As a silent scream, I’m here, I’m here, you’re here, we’re alive.
> 
> Maybe they kissed more than once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah the only person that commented on this fic (bless your soul), said they would like to see more so here it is! I also wanted to see how they'd do after it, so yeah this happened. It's short, and more introspective than anything, very little dialogue, but I hope you guys enjoy ^^
> 
> also if there are any mistakes sorry, i just wrote it and posted it, didn't really look over it, sorry >.<

“I feel like I’m going insane.” she cried, body wrecked and soul unmended. The sobs that threatened to overtake her whole body, were loud and awful and never ending.

Life was a fucking nightmare. _Broken body, broken mind_. Even if the body may heal with time, the mind will forever be trickier to fix. Grace had grown accustomed to the monsters inside her head, after all she didn’t have the easiest childhood, but these new beasts were different than what she was used to. Sometimes - in the worst of it - Grace gave in, thinking that her life was over and done. _Nothing left to put back together._ That all she had left of herself, all that she could feel from now on, was that unbearable fear and horrifying sadness. And then in the midst of those breakdowns she noticed the scars, remembered she fought, she won, she lived. 

_She wasn’t alone._

“Honestly, if after all of that, you didn’t go a little insane, there’d be something wrong with you. Probably.” Daniel tried to soothe her, rubbing gentle circles on her back as she tried to keep her tremors in check.

It felt nice and warm; gentle like a breeze in the Summer; and as much as Grace detested the feeling of someone else touching her these days, Daniel was different, special. She craved it, yearned for it, and sadly, pushed the meaning of those feelings as far down as she could.

Daniel grounded her to this world. Without him she felt untethered, afraid she’d float away and disappear, just like that, poof. Gone. So, getting into a relationship with him, at the moment, would probably not be the best of ideas. Also, him having been her brother-in-law for a day, and his whole family dying so she could live, was also a bit of a heavy baggage to bring into a new romantic relationship.

Grace knew though, that as much as Daniel was her rock, she was his as well.

And maybe they had kissed once. When the nightmares had proven to be a bit too real, and they couldn’t breathe, or feel. So they chased each other’s warmth, over and over again. Needing to feel the heat, to hear the other’s heartbeats, to grab and hold and squeeze. It was gentle and loving, but also rushed and bruising. To imprint themselves into the other’s skin. As a silent scream, _I’m here, I’m here, you’re here, we’re alive_.

Maybe they kissed more than once.

Grace wondered when they’d come clean about their feelings. After all, they had shown it in a thousand ways, the only thing left were the words. Perhaps they weren’t ready for them. Maybe they never would be. Regardless of how many months of therapy they both went through. 

Even after going down this spiral of thoughts, Daniel never stopped rubbing circles onto her back. Although she had already stopped crying a while ago, and the tremors were gone. He hadn’t stopped. 

“I’m glad you’re here. _With me_.” she said, instead of confessing her undying love, or something like that.

“I mean, it’s between having an existential crisis every ten minutes, with a beautiful, lovely girl on my side, or death. So, yeah. I think I’m glad to be here with you too.” it sounded like a joke, and it was said like one too, but no. It was the only way Daniel could bring himself to be honest. To bare himself naked to her prying eyes. Her company, even if it brought him pain to be alive, triumphed a peaceful death.

In that moment, looking into his eyes, still feeling his warm hands, the words spilled out of her mouth. Wrong timing, wrong person, wrong, wrong wrong. _Right?_

“ _I love you._ ”

It came as a shock to her as much as to him, and if it wasn’t absolutely nerve-wrecking to wait for his reaction, she’d think his look of surprise happened to be kinda cute. But then he smiled - which he rarely did, he’d smile sardonically and he’d laugh, but he never smiled like _that,_ open and sweet and honest. He smiled and Grace was a goner.

No joking tone of voice now, just soft and loving, “ _I love you too._ ”

Ready or not for this new step, they still had to take it eventually. Might as well do it sooner rather than later, after all the world was a crazy, fucked up place. Who knew what might happen in the future? 

They weren’t ok yet, and they’d never be the same, not really. 

And, perhaps, one day, the monsters in their heads would grow smaller, more controllable.

But for now, they at least had each other.

Daniel kissed her, or maybe she kissed him, it didn’t matter. What mattered was their laughter bubbling from their momentary happiness, from their love. 

_Love is a fucking mess, but sometimes it’s worth it._

**Author's Note:**

> i'm also kickassfu on tumblr~~


End file.
